1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cleaning cassette for high-speed cassette recorders, with a cassette case corresponding to the associated magnetic tape casette case and a cleaning tape housed therein, which at least partly has roughly the same configuration as the magnetic tape of the magnetic tape cassette.
2. Prior Art
It is known in connection with commercial cassette recorders, for example those used as accessories for small computers, to use cleaning cassettes for cleaning the magnetic heads. These cleaning cassettes have the same configuration as the magnetic tape cassettes belonging to the particular cassette recorder. Thus, the cleaning tape is also driven with the aid of the magnetic tape cassette drive.
Magnetic tape recorders have now been developed for computer uses, in which the magnetic tape housed in the magnetic tape cassettes is moved past the magnetic head at a very high speed, i.e. at more than 2 m/sec. At such high speeds, an air cushion is formed between the magnetic tape and the magnetic head, so that dust can collect there when the tape recorder is in operation. After prolonged use, this dust leads to the gap between the magnetic head and the magnetic tape becoming so large that reliable recording or playback is no longer possible. Moreover, due to the high speed, there is marked electrostatic charging, which helps to attract further dust particles.
It is not possible in the case of such high speed tape recorders to use cleaning cassettes which are driven by the magnetic tape with the cassette drive mechanism, because this would lead to excessively high speeds of the cleaning tape, which would then act in the manner of an abrasive tape.